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The Government of India on Tuesday, 19 April, notified the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act 2022 merging Delhi's East, South, and North Delhi Municipal Corporations into one – to be called the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
The government will also appoint a special officer, to discharge the functions of the corporation.
This comes two weeks after the Rajya Sabha on 5 April passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill 2022. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had told the Upper House that the Delhi government was a giving step-motherly treatment to three MCDs.
He had claimed that there was no uniformity in policies adopted by the three civic bodies and their economic resources and responsibilities were not assessed properly.
The new MCD act comes ahead of the polls for Delhi's civic body.
The state election commission (SEC) of Delhi on 9 March – the day it was to announce the dates for Delhi’s three civic body polls – had said that the MCD polls were being deferred, citing a communication from Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.
Reportedly, Baijal had conveyed to the SEC that the Centre was intending to pass legislation to merge the three municipal corporations of Delhi.
"We will leave politics if BJP gets the MCD polls held now and wins it," Kejriwal had said, issuing a challenge to the Centre.
"BJP is postponing MCD elections so that all three municipal corporations of Delhi can be unified. Can elections be postponed because of this? Tomorrow they will be losing Gujarat, so can they avoid that saying that they are uniting Gujarat and Maharashtra? Can Lok Sabha elections be postponed by making such an excuse?" he had added.
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Published: 19 Apr 2022,09:34 AM IST